Page 144 of The Devil's Thorn
The girl giggled and leaned down toward him, saying something low in his ear. I couldn’t hear the words, but whatever it was made him grin and stand up without hesitation.
My gaze followed him silently as he trailed behind her toward the back of the jet.
Kellan watched them go, then looked at me. “You jealous?”
I didn’t answer right away. My eyes were still fixed on the door they disappeared behind.
“No,” I said finally. “Just irritated.”
“Because she’s a distraction?”
“No.” I leaned back and crossed my legs. “Because he let her be.”
Kellan nodded slowly like he understood, but didn’t say anything more. The silence that stretched between us wasn’t uncomfortable. It never was. We were too similar for that.
Eventually, I stood, brushing invisible dust off my thigh. “I need air.”
Kellan arched a brow. “We’re on a plane.”
“Don’t get clever now,” I muttered.
I walked through the jet, past the bar area, until I found one of the side lounges with a wide panoramic window.
The sky looked endless from up here. Pale blue that bled into white, then darker toward the curve of the world. I leaned a hand against the cold glass, the other still resting on my hip. The bracelet on my wrist—my mother’s—glinted softly in the filtered sunlight.
I hadn’t noticed how tight my chest had gotten until I exhaled. Everything felt like it was moving. Shifting. Like I was in the middle of something I couldn’t name yet, but it was already too late to pull out of.
And that’s when I heard his voice behind me.
“If I didn’t know better,” Rafael said smoothly, “I’d think you were in some sort of twisted entanglement with the two of them. The brooding one and the one currently being devoured in the back.”
I turned slowly, finding him leaned against the doorway, hands in his pockets. He smirked. “Is that why you brought them? A bit of variety to keep your life interesting?”
I arched a brow. “You think that’s your business?”
He pushed off the door, walked toward me with that maddening calm. “You made it my business the moment you involved them in mine.”
I didn’t move. “Don’t mistake loyalty for entanglement. Just because you’ve never had anyone willing to take a bullet for you doesn’t mean others don’t.”
He stopped in front of me, his eyes flickering over my face, down to the dip of my dress, before rising again. “So they follow your orders, then?” he asked. “Even when it comes to keeping your bed warm?”
I smiled slowly. “Would it bother you if they did?”
“I didn’t say it would.”
“Then why bring it up?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped even closer, his voice lowering. “Because I’m trying to decide whether you’re provoking me for fun… or because you want me to do something about it.”
I laughed once, dark and quiet. “What would you do, Rafael?”
His eyes flashed. “I’d ruin every man who’s ever touched you,” he said quietly. “And then I’d make you forget they ever existed.”
The tension cracked like electricity between us. He didn’t touch me. He didn’t have to. The air around him moved like it wanted to.
I held his gaze, let him see that his words didn’t shake me. Not the way he wanted them to. “You’re too confident,” I murmured.
He tilted his head. “I have a reason to be.”
